European parliamentarian, Co-Chair of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee Mila Cabrnoch has made a statement concerning the Committee's last meeting that took place in Strasbourg a few days ago.
Radio Liberty quotes him as saying that the key topic of the meeting was the present and the future of EU-Armenia relations. The latter was especially significant for the EU after Armenia's surprising decision to join the Customs Union. Cabrnoch said that the EU is enthusiastic to know that the European and Armenian MPs have agreed to update the partnership agreement signed as far back as 1999. By saying this the EU appears to mean that its relations with Armenia have fallen back to what they were 15 years ago.
The EU delegation regrets to say that even though the parties were mostly unanimous on priorities, some unrelated questions clouded the general atmosphere and prevented them from adopting a joint statement. The European MPs are still committed to continue cooperation in the fields that will not be ruled out by Armenia because of its involvement in the Customs and Eurasian unions.
To remind, for the first time ever a meeting of the EU-Armenia Parliamentary Cooperation Committee has ended with no joint statement adopted. The Armenian MPs say that this happened because of the tough and unfavorable declarations their European colleagues made on the Nagorno-Karabakh problem because of Armenia's decision to join the Customs Union.